Neil Cybart at Above Avalon goes into considerable detail as he explains Apple’s strategy to control sound products. And that means, amongst other things, the dedicated headphone jack on the iPhone had to go.

Dennis Sellers is a seasoned journalist, reporter and news editor. He knew at a very early age that he wanted to become a journalist and that led to his Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Tennessee. He worked in the newspaper business for over 20 years, wrote freelance while he taught, earned his Master’s degree, signed on with MacCentral in the 1990s. After MacCentral was assimilated, he launched Macsimum News, an online newspaper covering the Mac industry and Apple news. In 2015, he joined Apple World Today as news editor. Dennis and I chatted about the state of Apple, hopes for macOS, his experience with his HomePod, Apple and education and what Apple might reveal at WWDC in June. He also explained the interesting domain his website uses.

Family Sharing is a handy feature that Apple offers to let up to six people share things like iCloud Storage, Apple Music, iTune purchases, location data, and more. Whether you’ve never needed the feature before or just want to get it set up for the first time, follow along for how to start using Family Sharing.

We look at some possibilities on what may be announced at Apple's educational event in Chicago next Tuesday

Apple Campus 3 (AC3) is about to open, another big Apple building about four miles north of both 1 Infinite Loop and Apple Park

The text version of the podcast can be read below. To listen to the podcast here, click the play button on the player below. Apple News readers need to visit Apple World Today in order to listen to the podcast.

Text Version

This is Steve Sande for Apple World Today, and you’re listening to the AWT News Update podcast for Monday, March 19, 2018.

Every time Apple announces an event for the press, two things happen: first, Apple...

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

We have only one ExtraBIT this week, in which analyst Ben Thompson explains why the United States blocking Broadcom’s acquisition of Qualcomm might be a good thing.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Well-known Apple product leaker Benjamin Geskin has posted photos of a “Blush Gold” iPhone X that he claims is in production now. The tweet includes a professional-looking shot of the back of the iPhone X in a copper-gold color and another grainier shot of a SIM tray in a different gold color. But Geskin has already been wrong about the number of colors the iPhone X would feature at launch and others have jumped the gun on speculation…

This is just a heads-up that we’ll be transitioning everything — Web site, mailing list, commenting system, membership system, and more — to new servers in a few weeks.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Did you visit Apple World Today over the weekend? If you did, you probably noticed some subtle changes, like the addition of the word “Forum” in the menu at the top of the page. Those changes have already been announced to the members of Team AWT, the group of Apple World Today readers who support this website through monthly or annual donations. The big news is the addition of the Team AWT Community Forum.

Over the past two years, we’ve tried various methods of getting a community started as part of Apple World Today — a place where you can post your opinions, ask questions, provide answers to other readers, take a poll, or just talk about Apple products new and old. One of those methods was a Facebook page just for Team AWT members, but not every reader uses Facebook. Another was to create a chat room in Slack, but some users were concerned about needing to use another...

The classic Gameboy wasn't fancy, but you could play a ton of classic games like Tetris, Tank, Snake, and Formula One Racing and have a great time! Today's deal is on the Wanle Gamers Console for iPhone ($33.99), which is an iPhone case for iPhone X, 7/8, and 7/8 Plus that is also a Gameboy-like gaming console!

That plastic case feels like an old Gameboy, and the controls are just familiar enough to make it easy to try to beat the old top scores from your youth. Check out the video below for an idea of just how it works.

Tesla now accepts Apple Pay payments from customers reserving the new Model 3 electric vehicle. As the company ramps up production of its most affordable EV yet, supporting Apple’s payment platform makes reservations easier and faster than ever.

A memo released last week by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee could put Congress on a legal collision course with Apple if Democrats take back the House of Representatives, The Intercept reports. On page 20 of the document protesting the Republican decision to end the HIC’s Russian collusion inquiry, the Democrats proposed the committee go after Apple’s “records reflecting downloaded encrypted messaging apps for certain…

Apple has a fun new commercial out highlighting Face ID on the iPhone X. The message in the ad is that you can use your face to unlock pretty much anything, and its wrapped up in music and a little dancing. Bonus: If you look closely at the end of the commercial you can see an iOS 11 bug where text briefly flows outside a Messages notification bubble.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

If you have a new iPhone X or Galaxy S9 and you're tired of plugging it in every night, you can stop the madness by putting a wireless charger on your nightstand. And Amazon just so happens to have a great deal on one right now.

For the first time, Apple is developing its own MicroLED screens for testing purposes, Bloomberg reports. Sources claim Apple has made a “significant investment” in the program designing and producing the new displays at a secret California manufacturing facility near the company’s headquarters. MicroLED screens can be built slimmer than OLED displays while still delivering a brighter display that consumes less power thanks to different…

Apple is reportedly taking a big step toward making its own displays, and it isn't using the technology you may be most familiar with. According to a Bloomberg report, a secret facility in California close to Apple Park houses engineers developing microLED displays for Apple mobile devices. While Apple has been making its own chips for its mobile devices for a few years, this would be the first time the company has attempted to build its own displays.

MicroLED technology is still in its infancy, particularly in its application in consumer electronics. We last saw microLEDs show up in Samsung's gigantic, 146-inch TV...

Apple will launch a new store in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo on Saturday, April 7, reports 9to5 Mac. It will be the company’s eighth retail outlet in the country.

Shinjuku is a special ward that’s a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the Northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration centre for the government of Tokyo. As of 2015, the ward has an estimated population of 337,556.

With the opening of its Shinjuki establishment, Apple will have 504 retail stores in 24 countries and an online store available in 39 countries.

Apple’s devices might have some of the best displays on the planet, but according to a new report, there could be a big change on the horizon. Well, technically a big small change.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is reporting that Apple is developing its own MicroLED screens for future Apple Watches and iPhones that would make them thinner, brighter, and more energy efficient. The report says Apple Watch would receive the new displays first, followed by iPhone, but the advancements are still likely years away.

Apple is expected to procure a total of 250-270 million flat panels for the production of iPhones this year, according to DigiTimes Research, quoting unnamed “sources from Taiwan's panel industry.”

Apple's purchases of OLED panels in 2018 will reportedly reach 110-130 million units, including 70-80 million 5.9-inch units for the current iPhone X and an upgraded version of the same size. The remaining will be 40-50 million 6.5-inch OLED panels for the production of a less expensive model, according to DigiTimes.

The report adds that Apple will also take up a total of 60-70 million 6.1-inch all-screen LTPS panels for another new iPhone to be released this fall, as well as 60-70 million LTPS panels in 4-, 4.7- and 5.5-inch sizes for the production of iPhone 8s, iPhone SEs and iPhone 7. Though DigiTimes Research has a hit and miss record when it comes to its Apple-related forecasts, this report lines up with another...

Apple is designing and producing its own device displays for the first time, using a secret manufacturing facility near its California headquarters to make small numbers of the screens for testing purposes, according to Bloomberg, quoting unnamed “people familiar with the situation.” Apple Watch will be first product with Apple-produced MicroLED technology, the article adds.

Apple’s screen development and manufacturing facility in Santa Clara, California, on March 15, 2018.Source: Bloomberg

Along with OLEDs, microLEDs are primarily aimed at small, low-energy devices such as smartwatches and smartphones. However, unlike OLED, microLED is based on conventional GaN LED technology, which offers higher total brightness than OLED produces. It also doesn’t suffer from the shorter lifetimes of OLED.

For Monday’s iLounge Deal, you can pick up the Atech USB-C Magnetic Breakaway Charging Cable for only $24.99 — that’s 37% off the regular price. One casualty of Apple’s switch to USB-C on the newest MacBooks was the elimination of the venerable MagSafe connector — something that was a lifesaver for users with children, pets, or just personal clumsiness that could pull a MacBook off a desk. Fortunately, this magnetic breakaway…

[VIDEO] First things first, if you haven’t yet seen it, take a minute to watch Apple’s latest iPhone ad (embedded in the main Loop post). It’s a wonderful, tumultuous, explosion of visuals, all focused on a single point. Unlocking is easy.

This whimsical treat has vaulted near the top of my favorite Apple spots, a refreshing complement to the Spike Jonze HomePod ad from a few weeks ago.

What I found interesting about this is that Siri is actually playing a track named “White Noise” by a band called “White Noise”. This is an incredibly prescient move by the band. They’ve bottlenecked the white noise concept, intentionally or not, funneling all white...

In March 2017, months after investigations began into both shootings, separate detectives on each case, one day apart, employed an innovative strategy in criminal investigations.

On a satellite image, they drew shapes around the crime scenes, marking the coordinates on the map. Then they convinced a Wake County judge they had enough probable cause to order Google to hand over account identifiers on every single cell phone that crossed the digital cordon during certain times.

And on reactions from defense attorneys and privacy advocates:

They’re mixed on how law enforcement turns to Google’s massive cache of user data, especially without a clear target in mind. And they’re concerned about the potential to snag innocent users, many of whom might not know just how closely the company tracks their every move.

Apple Inc. is designing and producing its own device displays for the first time, using a secret manufacturing facility near its California headquarters to make small numbers of the screens for testing purposes, according to people familiar with the situation.

The technology giant is making a significant investment in the development of next-generation MicroLED screens, say the people, who requested anonymity to discuss internal planning. MicroLED screens use different light-emitting compounds than the current OLED displays and promise to make future gadgets slimmer, brighter and less power-hungry.

Apple is expected order for up to 270 million smartphone display panels throughout 2018, according to a supply chain report, with the volume of anticipated orders far exceeding Apple's best annual iPhone sales total by almost 40 million units.

In January, Apple announced plans to build a new campus in the United States. However, it hasn't previously said much about AC3, its third major campus development already nearing completion in Silicon Valley. Here's a look at the more immediate growth occurring in Apple's backyard as the company works to accommodate an expansion of workers.

Apple has filed for a patent (number 20180077813) for “electronic devices with protective enzymes.” The goal: to makes iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches more resistant to sweat and skin oil.

In the patent filing, Apple notes that electronic devices often include polymers. For example, electronic device housing structures, gaskets, adhesives, and other structures may be formed from polymers. If care isn’t taken, these structures may be vulnerable to degradation from environmental contaminants. For example, exposure to fatty acids from human sweat and skin oils can cause polymers to swell and degrade. Apple wants to change this.

Unmarked Software’s TextSoap 8, an upgrade to their macOS productivity tool designed to automate the tedious task of manually cleaning up text, brought a new interface that streamlines efforts in text cleaning of documents, emails, web pages and more.

The software can tackle text from a variety of formats. It processes text documents, skipping past the repetitive work of manually fixing up text with a simple click. TextSoap 8’s system-wide menu provides access to the software's features inside most apps.

TextSoap 8 gave us a new interface designed to streamline efforts in text cleaning of documents, emails, web pages and more. It added greater control in matching and changing both text and a various text attributes. Whether broken paragraph lines, extra spaces, extra returns or fonts gone wild, TextSoap offers a collection of tools to clean up text with a click.

Version 8 features a new custom cleaner editor with color-coded actions. New grouping actions make...

Supply-chain reports predicting Apple’s order for iPhone displays across 2018 would, if accurate, point to record-breaking sales for the year.

Taiwanese supply-chain sources report that Apple is expected to buy 250-270M display panels for iPhones this year. This would be well above the 216M iPhones sold last year, and even higher than the company’s all-time record sales of 231M in 2015 …

A new page on Apple’s Japanese retail website and accompany neon banner have announced the opening of a new Apple store in Tokyo’s retail district of Shinjuku. The brand new location will begin welcoming customers on April 7th at 10:00 a.m.

Democrats on the Intelligence Committee have released a memo laying out the steps they would have taken had they been in charge of the Trump-Russia investigation — and steps they may take if and when they gain subpoena power by taking over the House of Representatives in November. Part of that plan may involve a subpoena to Apple to find out when key officials downloaded encrypted apps, reports The Intercept.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

On a regular basis, Apple World Today posts a list of notable new apps or app updates that have been released. They may not necessarily be new, but they're popular and deserve mention. Here are today's picks.

iOS Apps/Updates

Prajnu has introduced FlexTimer+, a free workout timer app for iOS devices. Designed for HIIT, interval training, tabata, cross-fit, yoga, or meditation, it provides a customizable workout timer. You just create a workout, and the app will guide you through the workout you create with sound cues, exercise names, and images. FlexTimer+ works with most music apps, including Pandora, Spotify and more.

Natural Designs Software has announced a port of their iPad custom keyboard app, PadKeys, to the iPhone. Numbers, punctuation, and cursor keys are now available without layout flipping via the...

Apple has been sending out invitations to a developer workshop in Paris. It will be held next Friday, March 23 at the Station F startup incubator. The workshop will last for two hours and focus on app development as well as help developers improve and promote their software.

It’s also thought that the workshop is part of Apple’s efforts to resolve the controversy French finance minister Bruno Le Maire raised about Apple and Google. Both Apple and Google have commented on the issue, Apple stating that it has a relationship with “tens of thousands” of French developers. Collectively these developers have earned over a billion euros from the App Store.

Apple has also offered the following comment regarding the issue:

Apple has always defended the privacy and security of users and does not have access to user transactions with third-party applications. We are fully prepared to share our story in...

Sunday March 18

Apple is reportedly developing MicroLED screen technology at a secret engineering and manufacturing facility located 15 minutes from Apple Park, with the tech expected to debut in future devices as a potential replacement for OLED panels currently supplied by Samsung.

Samsung phones have long had a built-in Movie Maker app that lets you spice up your clips -- helpful if you'd rather not hunt down a third-party app just to do more than trim your footage. However, you'll soon have to kiss it goodbye. The latest vers...

Apple quietly acquired a company called LuxVue in 2014 that was working on low-power MicroLED display technology. A report by Bloomberg indicates that development has continued and that Apple is making a "significant investment" in the new technology...

A new report from Bloomberg this evening says that Apple is “designing and producing its own device displays,” which is a first for the company. Citing people familiar with the situation, the report explains that Apple using a secret manufacturing facility near its headquarters in California…

Spacecraft don't usually have much flexibility when it comes to sending data back to Earth: they either have to venture within range of a dedicated ground station or offload it by returning to the planet. NASA may soon have a more flexible option: it...

It's no secret that Tinder (or rather, its parent company Match Group) and Bumble are arch-rivals in the swipe-right dating app space, and that battle just escalated. Match Group has sued Bumble for allegedly violating two patents, one for the "orna...

Brings a number of improvements to Outlook and addresses a security-bypass vulnerability in Excel. ($149.99 new for one-time purchase, $99.99/$69.99 annual subscription options, free update)

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Avegant has drawn a lot of attention in the wearable world between its Glyph personal screen and its light-field augmented reality headset, but it's facing uncertain times. The Verge has learned that the startup cut more than half of its workforce (i...

Facebook may face more legal trouble than you might think in the wake of Cambridge Analytica's large-scale data harvesting. Former US officials David Vladeck and Jessica Rich have told the Washington Post that Facebook's data sharing may violate the...

Maintenance update brings a number of improvements and bug fixes for the group messaging system and collaboration tool. (Free, 71.3 MB)

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

The Navy's fourth USS Colorado attack submarine has recently gone into service with an Xbox controller onboard. No, not so sailors can play Overwatch: they'll actually be using the gaming device to steer the vehicle's two photonics masts, which you c...

Twitter may soon join Facebook and Google in cracking down on ads for cryptocurrency-related products. Sky sources have claimed the social network will institute worldwide ban against ads for initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency wallets and token...

It will surprise no-one to know that I was an early adopter of electronic calendars, starting with a Casio Digital Diary in the early 1990s, followed by a Psion 5mx in 1997. But making the switch from a Filofax to a grayscale PDA did mean giving up one thing I didn’t get back until years later: color-coded calendars.

Many people use color-coding to distinguish work and social events, as well as things like family calendars. But I also use them to help me maintain a balanced life …

Over the last week, we’ve reported on Calendar 2, an app from Qbix that seemingly added cryptocurrency mining as an alternative to paying for premium features. Qbix itself acknowledged issues with the model and Apple said such practices are not allowed in the Mac App Store, but that almost certainly won’t stop developers outside of the Mac App Store from doing it.

Would you be willing to let an app mine cryptocurrency in the background in exchange for premium features?

The quest to end forced labor has created some unusual technological allies. Coca-Cola, the US State Department and a trio of crypto organizations (Bitfury Group, Blockchain Trust Accelerator and Emercoin) have launched a pilot project that will use...

For many, Cohen will be an acquired taste but he’s always been one of my favorite songwriters, right up there with Prince. But where Prince had a love of life and sensuality to it, Cohen would be described as depressing (not by me though). But I still love listening to him.

It was a parabolic week for space nerds. The president teased the creation of a fourth military branch dubbed the "Space Force," world-renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking passed away at the age of 76, and NASA's acting chief retired without someo...

And those things will be announced on March 27th, as Apple has just sent an invitation out focusing on “creative new ideas for teachers and students.”

This doesn’t offer a whole lot to go by, although it’s been rumored that Apple has been working on cheaper MacBooks and iPads, which would make sense given this event’s context. Interestingly, the event won’t be held in Apple’s newly opened Apple Park campus in Cupertino, but at a high school in Chicago. Chicago’s Board of Education recently added computer science as a graduation requirement for all public schools in the city, making it a fitting pairing for an Apple event.

It’s been rumored that Apple is looking to release a successor to the MacBook Air, which Apple still sells as an entry-level, $999 notebook. The new computer — rumored to be a 13.3-inch “entry-level” MacBook with a 2560 x 1600 resolution Retina...

Saturday March 17

As much work as YouTube may have done to scrub vile videos from its Kids app, there's still some work to go. Business Insider has discovered that the Kids app was suggesting conspiracy theory videos when you searched for certain keywords. If you look...

Readers this week can exclusively save $1,000 on Apple's Late 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro in Space Gray with an upgraded 2.9GHz processor and 512GB of storage space. Priced at just $1,899 after the discount, this deal also includes free shipping, and B&H will not collect sales tax in most states.

Nissan's current electric car lineup revolves almost exclusively around the Leaf, but it's ready to diversify its selection. The company's European design chief Mamoru Aoki has revealed to Autocar that a production version of the IMx concept SUV (abo...

Video assistant referees are about to get their biggest test to date. In the wake of an earlier general approval, the FIFA Council has authorized the use of VARs at the upcoming 2018 World Cup in Russia. The tool will help refs make decisions on di...

Google understandably shuts down easy access to your phone when Android Auto is turned on, since you're supposed to be focused on the road. But what if you do need access to your phone while it's still paired with your car? It should be easy from n...

Last night Facebook announced bans against Cambridge Analytica, its parent company and several individuals for allegedly sharing and keeping data that they had promised to delete. This data reportedly included information siphoned from hundreds of th...

Amazon has made a big hire for its secret health care division internally known as 1492, according to CNBC: FDA's first chief health informatics officer Taha Kass-Hout. The e-commerce giant reportedly brought him on board to work under former Google...

While most crowdfunding projects look at short term gains for a small group of developers, here's a project that is worthy of your attention whether or not you have children. STEMtrunk, a project by Aaron Watkins, is a brilliant crowdfunding project that seeks to create a subscription service for educational toys.

The idea makes a lot of sense; while many parents would love to get the latest and greatest educational toy for their K-8 kids to help foster their interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), a lot of those toys are financially out of reach. With STEMtrunk, Watkins and his team hope to create a "lending library" of those rather expensive toys. With a subscription, parents can get their kids a really cool education toy to learn from, then return it to STEMtrunk after a specific time period to get another one...

It's safe to say that when a video game that counts Drake among its fans has breakfast TV shows around the world discussing its effect on younger players, it has truly made it. No, we're not talking about Grand Theft Auto, but Fortnite, Epic Games' m...

The House of Representatives' investigation into Russia's election interference may have ended, but Democrats are still discussing what they'd like to do if and when they regain a House majority -- and it could have significant repercussions for the...

In the latest installment of our Galaxy S9 comparison series we pit the cameras of Apple's iPhone X against those Samsung built into its new Galaxy S9+ flagship. Find out which smartphone comes out on top in this video.

A leaked memo claims that should the Democrats claim the House in November, they will use subpoena power to compel Apple, Google, Amazon and others to divulge what apps that investigated individuals downloaded, and will pursue the app developers themselves for contents of messages.

Lyft and Waymo might not be the only ridesharing companies developing self-driving technology with hopes of making it available to others. Nikkei has claimed that Uber is in talks to slip its autonomous vehicle system into a Toyota minivan, marking...

It appears that Washington D.C. lawmakers are planning to ask Apple for help as they investigate the use of encrypted messaging apps in the ongoing Trump-Russia investigation. In a memo, democrats on the Intelligence Committee outlined what they may do if they take over the House of Representatives in November…

The previous FCC leadership took some aggressive steps to fight robocalls, but they've just been scaled back. A DC Circuit appeals court has shot down an FCC rule for reportedly going far in its definition of an autodialer. The regulations defined...

I'm not kidding (okay, I'm sort of kidding) when I say that the Infiniti QX80 (starting at $64,750) is only slightly smaller than a studio apartment I used to live in. It's a very large SUV that's packed to the gills with luxury features. It's certai...

Making The Grade is a new weekly series from Bradley Chambers covering Apple in education. Bradley has been managing Apple devices in an education environment since 2009. Through his experience deploying and managing 100s of Macs and 100s of iPads, Bradley will highlight ways in which Apple’s products work at scale, stories from the trenches of IT management, and ways Apple could improve its products for students.

There’s been a lot of discussion in the Apple community lately about MacBook Pro vs. MacBook Air vs. MacBook. Each laptop has its pros and cons, but I want to consider which one makes the most sense in education.

I had to do this process two years ago when I was planning our technology refresh at our school. I came up with a list of guidelines that I considered to be important, and then let those guidelines help me determine what laptop was best for us.

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.Welcome to the weekend! Other than some highlights from last week, you can check out an Alphabet-backed smart city plan and Facebook's latest Friday night news dump.

Tom Warren, writing for The Verge: If you blink during Apple's latest iPhone ad, you might miss a weird little animation bug. It's right at the end of a slickly produced commercial, where the text from an iMessage escapes the animated bubble it's supposed to stay inside. It's a minor issue and easy to brush off, but the fact it's captured in such a high profile ad just further highlights Apple's many bugs in iOS 11. 9to5Mac writer Benjamin Mayo spotted the bug in Apple's latest ad, and he's clearly surprised "that this was signed off for the commercial," especially as he highlighted it months ago and has filed a bug report with Apple.

A crew of indie veterans, including half of notable studio Vlambeer, will release Minit on April 3rd for Steam (PC), PS4 and Xbox One. In the monochromatic Lo-Fi title, players rushing out their front door to do as much adventuring as possible before...

The week began with Apple exec Eddy Cue making a special appearance at SXSW in Austin, but the biggest news was the announcement of a press event for March 27, and plans for WWDC 2018's kick-off on June 4.

NASA announced this week that it's looking for some citizen scientists to help out with a project. Six orbiting instruments make up NASA's Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) project and they are used to study Earth's climate and the...

Late Friday night, Facebook has announced it's suspending Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) from its site. While you may not have heard of SCL, its political analytics firm Cambridge Analytica has made headlines in the last few years due to...

Just days after avoiding a hostile takeover by Singapore-based Broadcom, the situation at Qualcomm continued to devolve on Friday when former executive chairman and ex-CEO Paul Jacobs was stripped of his board position as he pursues a bid for the company.

Last year Oculus teased its standalone "Go" VR headset saying it would go on sale for $199 early in 2018. Now Variety cites unnamed sources claiming that it will debut at Facebook's F8 conference May 1st. That should provide the kind of stage Zuckerb...

Last year we compared the speakers on the newly launched iPhone X to Samsung's then-current flagship and the iPhone destroyed in loudness, bass, mids, and highs. Will it do the same against the all new Galaxy S9+?

Software Updates via MacUpdate

BetterTouchTool adds many new, fully customizable gestures to the Magic Mouse, Multi-Touch MacBook trackpad, and Magic Trackpad.
These gestures are customizable:
Magic Mouse:
Pinch in / out (zoom... Read more

Tor Browser Bundle 7.5.2 - Anonymize Web...

The Tor Browser Bundle is an easy-to-use portable package of Tor, Vidalia, Torbutton, and a Firefox fork preconfigured to work together out of the box. It contains a modified copy of Firefox that... Read more

Monosnap 3.4.11 - Versatile screenshot u...

Monosnap lets you capture screenshots, share files, and record video and .gifs!
Features
Capture
Capture full screen, just part of the screen, or a selected window
Make your crop area pixel... Read more

Yummy FTP Pro 2.0.3 - $29.99

Yummy FTP Pro is an advanced Mac file transfer app which provides a full-featured professional toolkit combined with blazing speeds and impeccable reliability, so whether you want to transfer a few... Read more

Smultron 10.1.3 - Easy-to-use, powerful...

Smultron 10 is an elegant and powerful text editor that is easy to use. You can use Smultron 10 to create or edit any text document. Everything from a web page, a note or a script to any single piece... Read more

Time Out 2.4 - Break reminder tool with...

Time Out helps remind you to take work breaks throughout the day. It has two kinds of breaks: a "Normal" break, typically for 10 minutes after 50 minutes of work, so you can move about and relax,... Read more

Iridient Developer 3.2.2 - Powerful imag...

Iridient Developer (was RAW Developer) is a powerful image-conversion application designed specifically for OS X. Iridient Developer gives advanced photographers total control over every aspect of... Read more

DesktopLyrics 2.6.13 - Displays current...

DesktopLyrics is an application that displays the lyrics of the song currently playing in "iTunes" right on your desktop. The lyrics for the song have to be set in iTunes; DesktopLyrics does nothing... Read more

BusyContacts 1.2.8 - Fast, efficient con...

BusyContacts is a contact manager for OS X that makes creating, finding, and managing contacts faster and more efficient. It brings to contact management the same power, flexibility, and sharing... Read more

iClock 4.2.5 - Customizable menu bar clo...

iClock replaces the old Apple's default menu bar clock with more features, customization and increases your productivity.
Features:
Have your Apple or Google calendar instantly available from the... Read more

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Around the Empire: What have you missed...

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All the best games on sale for iPhone an...

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Everything You Need to Know About The Fo...

In just over a week, Epic Games has made a flurry of announcements. First, they revealed that Fortnite—their ultra-popular PUBG competitor—is coming to mobile. This was followed by brief sign-up period for interested beta testers before sending out... | Read more »

The best games that came out for iPhone...

It's not been the best week for games on the App Store. There are a few decent ones here and there, but nothing that's really going to make you throw down what you're doing and run to the nearest WiFi hotspot in order to download it. That's not to... | Read more »

Death Coming (Games)

Death Coming 1.1.1.536
Device: iOS Universal
Category: Games
Price: $1.99, Version: 1.1.1.536 (iTunes)
Description:
--- Background Story ---You Died. Pure and simple, but death was not the end. You have become an agent of Death: a... | Read more »

Hints, tips, and tricks for Empires and...

Empires and Puzzles is a slick match-stuff RPG that mixes in a bunch of city-building aspects to keep things fresh. And it's currently the Game of the Day over on the App Store. So, if you're picking it up for the first time today, we thought it'd... | Read more »

What You Need to Know About Sam Barlow’s...

Sam Barlow’s follow up to Her Story is #WarGames, an interactive video series that reimagines the 1983 film WarGames in a more present day context. It’s not exactly a game, but it’s definitely still interesting. Here are the top things you should... | Read more »

Pixel Plex Guide - How to Build Better T...

Pixel Plex is the latest city builder that has come to the App Store, and it takes a pretty different tact than the ones that came before it. Instead of being in charge of your own city by yourself, you have to work together with other players to... | Read more »

Fortnite Will Be Better Than PUBG on Mob...

Before last week, if you asked me which game I prefer between Fortnite Battle Royale and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), I’d choose the latter just about 100% of the time. Now that we know that both games are primed to hit our mobile screens... | Read more »

Price Scanner via MacPrices.net

MacBook Pro sale! B&H drops prices on new...

B&H Photo has dropped prices on new 2017 13″ MacBook Pros, with models now on sale for up to $200 off MSRP. Shipping is free, and B&H charges sales tax for NY & NJ residents only. Their... Read more

B&H Photo has the 1.4GHz Mac mini on sale for $399 for a limited time. Their price is $100 off MSRP, and it’s the lowest price available for a mini from any Apple reseller:
– 1.4GHz Mac mini (... Read more

Apple has a full line of Certified Refurbished iMacs available for up to $350 off original MSRP. Apple’s one-year warranty is standard, and shipping is free. The following models are available:
– 27... Read more

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